FAMILY PICTURE: Pretoria dairy farmers Johannes and Jacobi Van den Bosch, a deeply religious, Dutch immigrant couple who went to South Africa in 1982 with their large family to run a dairy farm, were murdered on Easter Friday, April 10 2009.

The 63-year-old farmer was bludgeoned to death while milking the family’s 30 cows at 4am. Wife Jacobi van den Bosch-Griep, 60, was stabbed to death inside the family homestead. Police described the murder scene as ‘very gruesome and bloody.’ The couple were described as ‘ sober hardworking farmers’ who originally came from Oukoop, which is near cheese-producing town of Gouda in The Netherlands. They were active members of the Reformed Church in Pretoria which has close ties to the Reformed (“Gereformeerde”) Church in The Netherlands.

They had twelve children - three children live in The Netherlands with 3 of their grandchildren, and 24 grandchildren live in South Africa Rev A. Schultink of the Reformed church in Bruinisse, The Netherlands – who travels to serve the 200-member religious community in Pretoria once a year to officiate at weddings and baptisms – said the Dutch church members were enormously shocked by these murders. It was the first time in the church’s existence that they had been confronted this closely with the violence which has raged in South Africa for so many years, writes the Nederlands Dagblad on April 14 2009 (p3, see picture below:)

April 16 2009 – Their oldest son, who lives in a farm house next to his parents’ on the same smallholding where he farms with breadfruit trees, cattle feed and pigs, discovered their bodies on Good Friday.

One of the couple’s other sons, Evert van den Bosch, who lives in nearby Pretoria, told me by telephone today that the funeral service will take place on Friday April 17 from 11am at the Gereformeerde Kerk at Wapadrand. This was not his parents’ congregation but, said Evert, the service will be held in this larger building to help accommodate the large number of mourners who are expected to attend. The burial will take place at the Pretoria North cemetery.

Mr van den Bosch, 63, was bludgeoned to death at the milk shed at 4am where he’d gone as usual to milk his 30 cows. His wife Jacobi (Cobi) , 60, inside the homestead, was first hit over the head, and then stabbed repeatedly while she was unconscious, police said. Both Dutch immigrants died on the scene. Police described the crime scene as ‘extremely bloody’. The police said the only items missing were two cellphones and a pocket knife belonging to Mr Van den Bosch – and said they could not establish a motive, because ‘a considerable amount of cash, weapons and expensive jewellery’ were left behind in the homestead, untouched.

Sober farming folk from Oukoop, South Holland

Mr Evert van den Bosch said his parents, besides leaving twelve children, also leave 29 grandchildren, three in The Netherlands, and the rest all live in the Greater Pretoria/Randburg/Krugersdorp region. Evert said he had emigrated to South Africa with the family when he was just 6 years old in 1982. “My parents were very hardworking and sober living farmers. They originally came from Oukoop (about 6km from Gouda, in South Holland province). They had then worked at Noordhoek in Brabant province before emigrating to South Africa to farm there,’ he said. His father always milked his 30-odd Fresian dairy cows himself and only had one employee to help him around the agricultural smallholding near Pretoria where the couple were murdered. At the time of the murder, one cow was pregnant and there also were some calves. said Evert. The children’s immediate worry was for the welfare of the livestock, he said: “We children decided together that that the animals had to be taken care of at once of course, so we have already sold them to a capable farmer nearby,’ Evert said. Ihttp://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2501210,00.html

Four men questioned but released…

It was also reported by Beeld newspaper’s Hilda Fourie a day earlier that four men who were taken in for questioning a day after the murder 'cannot be linked to the murders and were released'. She quoted police spokesman Johannes Jaftha in her report. These men were arrested for questioning about an another, unrelated attempted murder charge and were found with a knife in their possession 'which could have been linked to the Vd Bosch murders'. However after questioning, police said the men were released. http://jv.news24.com/Beeld/Suid-Afrika/0,,3-975_2500625,00.html

The murdered couple had been members of the Reformed Church in Pretoria. They had twelve children - three live in The Netherlands. Rev A. Schultink of the Reformed church community in Bruinisse, The Netherlands – who travels to serve the 200-member religious community in Pretoria once a year – says the Dutch church members were enormously shocked by the murders. It was the first time in the church’s existence that they had been confronted this closely with the violence which has raged in South Africa for so many years, writes the Nederlands Dagblad on April 14 2009 (p3). Police spokesman Johannes Jaftha told the South African Press Association that the motive for these brutal murders is unknown.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '